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| 1.15.18

Hawaii’s False Nuclear Attack Alert: What Happened?

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What’s the story?

On Saturday morning at 8:07 a.m., people in Hawaii received the following Emergency Alert System message on their phone:

"Missile threat inbound to Hawaii. Seek immediate shelter. This is not a drill."

However, no threat existed, and it would be a full 38 minutes before another message corrected the mistake.

"There is no missile threat or danger to the State of Hawaii. Repeat. False Alarm."

Congresswoman Tulsi Gabbard (D-HI) was one of the first officials to let the world know it was actually a mistake, tweeting:

Gabbard and others - including Hawaii Democratic Sen. Brian Schatz, Gov. David Ige, and the FCC - want answers on how this error occurred and how to prevent it from happening again.

How’d it happen?

Hawaii's emergency management administrator, Vern Miyagi, said an unnamed state worker clicked the wrong screen button during a shift change and it "went to an actual event versus a test."

How can it be prevented from happening again?

Most immediately, the employee responsible for the mis-push has been reassigned.

And Federal Communications Commission Chairman Ajit Pai said the FCC has begun investigating the incident with the help of federal and state officials.

"It appears that the government of Hawaii did not have reasonable safeguards or process controls in place to prevent the transmission of a false alert… we also must ensure that corrections are issued immediately in the event that a false alert does go out."

Pai issued a statement that the investigation has already revealed that Hawaii’s Wireless Emergency Alert System (WEA) lacked "reasonable safeguards."

"Based on the information we have collected so far, it appears that the government of Hawaii did not have reasonable safeguards or process controls in place to prevent the transmission of a false alert."

Speaking with NPR, Gabbard echoed Pai’s statements, saying serious corrective action needs to be taken at the state and federal level to figure out "why is it that one person was able to push this so-called wrong button that sent panic throughout the state of Hawaii but also really sent a message to the world."

However, some are pointing out that the telecom industry lobbied against testing the WEA. This was a story Countable covered during Hurricane Harvey.

"This system failed miserably," Sen. Schatz said. "We need to improve it and get it right."

What do you think?

Does the WEA need to be overhauled? Did you receive the false alarm? Hit Take Action and tell your reps, then share your thoughts below.

— Josh Herman

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